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Why is 'Where's Wally' called 'Where's Waldo' in the USA?

I was watching the promo for the next Black Mirror The Waldo Moment programme and somehow got onto thinking about Where's Wally/ Waldo now it's bugging me why there are two different titles XD

Does anyone know? :smile:

Reply 1

dendodge

9

I can think of three possible reasons, but they may all be wrong:

1.

"Wally" is an insult, so they changed it

2.

Wally isn't a common name in the US (not that it is here either)

3.

They couldn't get permission to license the name "Where's Wally?", so they picked a slightly different, but original, name

But those are all guesses. It's something that's bugged me too. My money's on number 3 if I had to pick any of them.

Reply 2

Gotzz

13

Continuing the pattern started with its introduction to the US, Wally got a new name (Waldo) and it seems, a new attitude with every country he was introduced. In some countries, Waldo retained the whimsical "˜w' in his name: For example, in Germany, he's Walter ("Wo ist Walter?") and in Norway, he's Willy ("Der hvor er Willy?"). But in France, he became Charlie ("Ou est Charlie?"), in Denmark, Holger and in Israel, Effi. According to Wikipedia (and therefore not entirely to be believed), American Waldo is a hipper, more "tech-savvy" traveler, while British Wally is a bit of a dork.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22414/wheres-waldo-and-whos-wally

Reply 3

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by dendodge

I can think of three possible reasons, but they may all be wrong:

1.

"Wally" is an insult, so they changed it

2.

Wally isn't a common name in the US (not that it is here either)

3.

They couldn't get permission to license the name "Where's Wally?", so they picked a slightly different, but original, name

But those are all guesses. It's something that's bugged me too. My money's on number 3 if I had to pick any of them.

I was thinking along those lines as well but I think a wally is more of an insult in this country than USA plus they also named that pixar movie Wall-e :smile:

Like you said I think it's more than third one if anything but it's still a bit confusing as to why and have been for ages, apparently when I was 4 and in America I kept asking the shop workers why Wally was called Waldo and they got really confused and thought I was just a crazy little English girl XD

Reply 4

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by Gotzz

http://mentalfloss.com/article/22414/wheres-waldo-and-whos-wally

Ahhhh a thankie that shows there's more names but I still don't get why XD Like Harry Potter's name didn't change but the title of the philosopher's stone changed to the sorcerer's stone O.o

Reply 5

dendodge

9

Original post by CarryOn123

Ahhhh a thankie that shows there's more names but I still don't get why XD Like Harry Potter's name didn't change but the title of the philosopher's stone changed to the sorcerer's stone O.o

That one was because they thought American children were too dumb to know what a philosopher was. Seriously.

Personally, I had more trouble with the name "Hermione" :tongue:

Reply 6

Ronove

18

Original post by CarryOn123

Ahhhh a thankie that shows there's more names but I still don't get why XD Like Harry Potter's name didn't change but the title of the philosopher's stone changed to the sorcerer's stone O.o

Here in Denmark he's called Holger. 'Where's Wally?' is 'Hvor er Holger?'. The 'h' in 'hvor' isn't pronounced so it's not a case of it sounding better, though I guess it looks more appealing as a title that way still.

Reply 7

ttoby

15

Original post by CarryOn123

Like Harry Potter's name didn't change but the title of the philosopher's stone changed to the sorcerer's stone O.o

I know with that one, it's because the publisher thought readers would mistake it for being a book about philosophy. At the time JK Rowling was desperate for it to be published so she reluctantly went along with the change.

Not sure about Wally/Waldo though. I'd imagine in general they'd change names like this because a name might say something about a character in a certain culture, but in another culture/language they'd need a different name to get the same effect.

Reply 8

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by dendodge

That one was because they thought American children were too dumb to know what a philosopher was. Seriously.

Personally, I had more trouble with the name "Hermione" :tongue:

I remember how pissed off my cousins were at that, I had to send them a British copy cos of how offended they were XD

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I had so much trouble with learning how to pronounce Hermione before the films :colondollar:

Reply 9

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by Ronove

Here in Denmark he's called Holger. 'Where's Wally?' is 'Hvor er Holger?'. The 'h' in 'hvor' isn't pronounced so it's not a case of it sounding better, though I guess it looks more appealing as a title that way still.

Hmmm seeing that they probably change the name to suit the country so it's more of a native name, I think I'm beginning to figure this out :tongue:

Reply 10

Manitude

20

Original post by CarryOn123

I remember how pissed off my cousins were at that, I had to send them a British copy cos of how offended they were XD

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I had so much trouble with learning how to pronounce Hermione before the films :colondollar:

My dad had a problem pronouncing it even after he'd seen about half of the films. I regret to say that I hadn't read most of the first book by the time I saw the first film. I started reading it about a day or two before we went to the cinema. IIRC there was some technical issue and we ended up watching the start twice :cool:

Reply 11

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by ttoby

I know with that one, it's because the publisher thought readers would mistake it for being a book about philosophy. At the time JK Rowling was desperate for it to be published so she reluctantly went along with the change.

Not sure about Wally/Waldo though. I'd imagine in general they'd change names like this because a name might say something about a character in a certain culture, but in another culture/language they'd need a different name to get the same effect.

The majority of Americans really aren't that thick though XD Ahhh fair enough to her for trying to prevent it though, I still remember seeing the American version of philosopher's stone and how pissed off the cast all looked at having to say 'sorcerer's stone' instead of 'philosopher's stone' :rolleyes:

That makes more sense to me now, I asked my mumma as well (she only just came in from work) and she said the same thing as when we were out in America my aunt said it was cos Wally is an insult in some states but also Waldo is a more common abbreviation for Walter than Wally.

I think the answer has been discovered! :biggrin:

Reply 12

Cadders1990

Original post by CarryOn123

I remember how pissed off my cousins were at that, I had to send them a British copy cos of how offended they were XD

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I had so much trouble with learning how to pronounce Hermione before the films :colondollar:

i called her Hermoin for aggggess! JK knew fans were having trouble pronouncing her name so in Order of the phoenix she had hermione spell it out for Victor Krum at the Yule Ball. That seemed to sort everyone out :P

p.s. I also pronounced Hagrid as Haygrid!! ooops

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Reply 13

dendodge

9

Original post by CarryOn123

I remember how pissed off my cousins were at that, I had to send them a British copy cos of how offended they were XD

I'm glad I'm not the only one! I had so much trouble with learning how to pronounce Hermione before the films :colondollar:

I did the whole Viktor Krum thing and called her Hermy-own. When I started talking about the book with my mum, she had to correct me xD

Reply 14

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by Manitude

My dad had a problem pronouncing it even after he'd seen about half of the films. I regret to say that I hadn't read most of the first book by the time I saw the first film. I started reading it about a day or two before we went to the cinema. IIRC there was some technical issue and we ended up watching the start twice :cool:

Hahah oh dear, in all fairness it's not really an easy name to say so he can be let off with that :tongue:

I hadn't read any of the books until I was in year 7/8, my teacher read them to us during our reading times plus I couldn't actually read that well at that point (I was a slow learner at a ****e school) but my teachers all had their own versions of her name my year 4 teacher called her 'Helen' year 5 called her 'Minie' and year 6 teacher was the only one that actually called her 'Hermione' as the film had just come out around then :smile:

Reply 15

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by Cadders1990

i called her Hermoin for aggggess! JK knew fans were having trouble pronouncing her name so in Order of the phoenix she had hermione spell it out for Victor Krum at the Yule Ball. That seemed to sort everyone out :P

p.s. I also pronounced Hagrid as Haygrid!! ooops

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It was so damn annoying for me at 9/10 years old not knowing how to pronounce it especially for 4 books! xD Didn't help that I'm dyslexic either

Apparently we still say Hagrid's name wrong, they don't pronounce it the way Rowling intended in the films :colondollar:

Reply 16

CarryOn123

OP

9

Original post by dendodge

I did the whole Viktor Krum thing and called her Hermy-own. When I started talking about the book with my mum, she had to correct me xD